Shares in Winn-Dixie suffered yesterday (28 July) after the US retailer announced plans to close 30 "under-performing" stores in a bid to lower the company’s cost structure, improve efficiency, and "build the right foundation" for the business in the future.

This week saw the high levels of M&A activity we have seen throughout May continue, with the shock announcement that the board of US pork group Smithfield has given its unanimous backing to a takeover bid from Chinese pork group Shuanghui International.

The performance of the UK food retail sector over Christmas came under scrutiny this week and there were some clear winners and losers. Elsewhere, the M&A rumour mill continued to turn, with German yoghurt giant Müller in talks to buy UK milk supplier Robert Wiseman Dairies. In the US, baker Hostess Brands applied for Chapter 11 protection for a second time, Cargill reported its worst quarter in a decade and Archer Daniels Midland announced a swathe of job cuts. On just-food's insight pages, we looked at Bi-Lo's plan to buy fellow UK retailer Winn-Dixie and at the importance of price optimisation.

First-half and quarterly results continued to filter out this week, with CEOs and CFOs attempting to mitigate some less than impressive expected results by looking to "long-term strategies." Here's the pick of what was said:

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About Private Label Food and Beverages. Private labels products are manufactured by a company, which are offered under another company's brand name. Private label products are manufactured by third-p...